1

I have been looking for a good and simple recipe to make steak tartar and found a lot of different ones.

I am guessing that making it does not require big cooking skills, so it seems like a perfect thing to make for a culinary-handicapped PBer like me. Plus it&#39;s healthy rare meat.

Has anyone made tartar before with good results?

“Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.” -Oscar Wilde"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it." -George Bernard Shaw"The trouble with jogging is that the ice falls out of your glass." -Martin Mull

1

I&#39;d love a nice, easy recipe also. I&#39;ve always wanted to try steak tartar. I prefer my meat cooked as little as possible. If there was a safe way to eat pork or chicken rare, I&#39;d totally go for it.

1

I had it once and decided that it just wasn&#39;t for me. I prefer my steak and eggs cooked, I guess.
</blockquote>

Same here. Steak Tartare doesn&#39;t taste of anything much to me. I suppose it&#39;s the scorching of the surface that adds a lot of the taste - those Maillard reactions.

But I suppose it partly depends on the quality of the meat. Maybe how it was treated would have a bearing, too: I&#39;ve seen it said that you should really try slicing it small by hand with a knife, if you have the patience; and if you must use a food processor, to do it slowly in pulses so that it doesn&#39;t turn into a mush.
[quote]

So, no, sorry, no recipes. I didn&#39;t even know there were any!
</blockquote>

People may have done variants on it, but it&#39;s just raw beef and raw egg yolk. Larousse Gastronomique says:
[quote]

À la Tartare is the name given to minced beef steak seasoned with salt and pepper, reshaped into a steak and served uncooked with a raw egg on top, and on the side, capers, chopped onion and parsley
</blockquote>

I can only assume it was named after the Tartars (Mongols) who used to put a piece of raw meat (horse meat, probably) under the saddle to soften and warm it a little. None of this sissy mincing for them!

Of course, their jaws would have been larger and the very substance of their teeth stronger* - it&#39;s said, very plausibly, that the strength of the teeth and the growth of the facial bones, including the jaws, are severely compromised in modern populations by poor diet (even in utero) ... hence dental bills. Some primitive populations had an almost complete absence of dental caries and perfectly formed dental arches. Modern populations haven&#39;t. Here&#39;s a dentist writing at the WAPF on that theme:

http://www.westonaprice.org/healthissues/facial-development.html

Vilhjalmur Stefansson is very interesting on the teeth - and on the teeth of the Eskimo in particular. An adult male Eskimo is said to have been capable of carrying a hundred pounds in each hand and another hundred in his jaws. Eskimos were known to open tin cans with their teeth - teeth like rock. Here&#39;s what Stefansson says about his own Icelandic forebears:
[quote]

My first anthropological commission was from the Peabody Museum of Harvard University when they sent John W. Hasting and me to Iceland in 1905. We found in one place a medieval graveyard that was being cut away by the sea. Skulls were rolling about in the water at high tide, at low tide we gathered them and picked up scattered teeth here and there. As wind and water shifted the sands we found more and more teeth until there was a handful. Later we got permission to excavate the cemetery, and eventually we brought with us to Harvard a miscellaneous lot of bone which included 80 skull, and as said, a great many loose teeth.

The collection has been studied by dentists and physical anthropologists without the discovery of a single cavity in even one tooth.

The skulls in the Hastings-Stefansson collection represent persons of ordinary Icelandic blood. There were no aborigines in that island when the Irish discovered it some time before 700 A. D. When the Norsemen got there in 860 they found no people except the Irish. It is now variously estimated that in origin the Icelanders are from 10 percent to 30 percent Irish, 40 percent to 50 percent Norwegian, the remainder, perhaps 10 percent, from Scotland, England, Sweden, and Denmark.

None of the people whose blood went into the Icelandic stock are racially immune to tooth decay, nor are the modern Icelanders. Then why were the Icelanders of the Middle Ages immune?
</blockquote>

Short answer: No sugar, and not even bread.

http://www.biblelife.org/stefansson1.htm

________________

* OTOH perhaps that&#39;s irrelevant:

"... So far as their meat is raw it can be chewed like a raw oyster - slips down similarly. When perfectly fresh meat is cooked, two main causes determine toughness: the age of the beast and the manner of cooking. ...

I do not know a corresponding logical demonstration for seals, but I can testify from helping to eat thousands that their meat is never tough - at least not in comparison with the beefsteaks you sometimes get in New York chophouses.

1

Hannah, I am thinking of making very small portions in different ways and see which one turns out best.

Mick that link about facial development was really interesting.

I&#39;ll keep you guys posted with my tartar experiments.

“Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.” -Oscar Wilde"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it." -George Bernard Shaw"The trouble with jogging is that the ice falls out of your glass." -Martin Mull

1

I&#39;m digging this back up because I was going to post my recipe for Steak Tartar in a new post.

This recipe comes from a friend of mine who is a wonderful cook. She isn&#39;t primal by any stretch of the imagination, but I don&#39;t know anyone who would refuse to put their feet under her dinner table. That being said, this recipe is primal.

I&#39;m using metrics because I&#39;m French :-P

Françoise&#39;s Steak Tartar

-150g to 200g of high quality ground beef per person

-1 egg yolk per person (+1 extra if you like egg)

-Virgin olive oil (Extra virgin might be too strong a flavor)

-Dijon style mustard (Grey Poupon and the like)

-Tabasco

-Worcester sauce

-Capers

-Ketchup (not primal, and not necessary, but some people like it. Personally I do not)

-Salt & Pepper

In a mixing bowl add the egg, olive oil, and mustard. Mix it together until you get the consistency of semi-thick mayo.

Add the meat, and mix it in. Try to break up the meat an not squash it. Give it a taste, it should have a nice blended consistency and look and have a mouth feel that can be described as "creamy".

Add tabasco (you want bite not fire mouth).

Add the Worcester (just enough for flavor).

Add capers (to taste).

Add salt and pepper (to taste).

This is a bit of a throw it all together dish, so you might have to make it two or three times to dial in the flavor to your liking.

Traditionally this is served on a cold plate laid out like a large patty (use the fork for the shaping), with a plate of fries on the side, and a salad. Of course, skip the fries, and increase the size of the salad.

Be a bit careful with the quantity of meat you serve per person. This stuff is really good, but if you eat to much you will get full and feel a bit nauseous (not good at dinner parties).

If you give this a try let me know how you liked it.

Once you learn that you create your own reality and that you are fully responsible for your life, you can begin to see the world as it is and then you realize the limitless possibilities.